Interview with Allison Powell on Filmmaking and Storytelling

Hey, this is Steve Bloom, and you are listening

to the Geekcast Radio Network. Hello and welcome

to AlterGeek. I'm your host, Stephen C. Phillips,

and joining me on this geeky conversation is

Alison Powell, who you may have seen in her Black

Widow Origins, and now she's making her own film

on Kickstarter. Welcome, Alison. Thanks so much

for having me, Stephen. I'm super excited. Thank

you for joining me. So why don't we have you

tell the listeners a little bit about yourself?

Sure. I was born in North Carolina. I moved out

to LA five years ago. I grew up acting in North

Carolina. I just always loved performing and

storytelling. And Star Wars was a huge influence

on my life growing up. So I was always out in

the yard having lightsaber battles with... twigs

and logs, branches, whatever I could find by

myself. And so I always loved performing. And

then I moved out to L .A. to pursue a career

in film and television and explore that world.

And since I've been here, I have been really

fortunate to have been part of some really cool

projects and short films and things. And then

in the past few years, I've just really started

to realize that the the industry is opening up

to allowing people to create a lot of their own

content and tell the stories that they want to

see told and that they enjoy telling, which is

how Black Widow came about. I was just chatting

with someone and they said, yeah, let's make

a project. What do you want to do? And I just

thought, well, everybody wants a Black Widow

movie and nobody's making it. So why don't we

make one? I love that character. I really want

to make action films. Let's go for it. And then

this story that I'm raising funds for currently,

Banging Laney. Just occurred to me one night

while I was babysitting and I said, you know,

I'm pretty hilarious and my romantic life is

also awkward and hilarious. I think it'll make

a great movie. And so that's sort of going to

be my first foray into a much larger scale project

than Black Widow was. And that's that's me in

a nutshell. Nice. Yeah. I can definitely relate

to the play acting as a kid. I used to have all

of the Star Trek devices. Yes! I grew up on Star

Trek Voyager as well. That was my era. Yeah,

I'm a little bit older. I grew up on The Next

Generation as my main series, but I did watch

the original series around the same time. Oh,

nice! Yeah, that's that and among among that

and Batman the animated series and Programming

like that so I can definitely relate to the the

play acting and Yeah, it's always like let's

go pretend that we're in that world that we see

on TV or in film every day I always wanted to

be a part of that and so being able to create

that world. It's just Awesome. It's so fun. Yeah,

and what's funny about that is usually what you

enjoy as a kid is what you would actually enjoy

as an adult, but you don't realize it when you're

growing up, which is the funny part. Yeah, that's

really true. I never thought about that at all,

but everything that I enjoyed as a kid, I still

definitely enjoy. As an adult, I watch all three

original Star Wars every year. I haven't done

my marathon yet this year. Maybe I'll find time

when my campaign ends and just sit on the couch

and put all three on and relax. And then you

can go to the theater after you see Seven and

then watch Eight. Yes! Oh, man. Oh, man. That's

going to be awesome. I hope so. I hope so. I

have high hope for the eighth film. Yeah, I think

it'll be good. I'm looking forward to it much

more after Force Awakens. Force Awakens was good,

but it got me more excited for whatever is going

to hopefully be the equivalent of Empire, which

is what we've got coming. Yeah, we're long due

for a mega hit Star Wars. Yes, absolutely. drove

you to want to do acting and filmmaking. I know

you touched on it a little bit, but just what

kind of put that itch in there to put your mark

on it? I really don't know. I really don't remember

a time that I... didn't want to be performing,

even if it was just making up plays with my siblings

or my cousins on family vacation or at Thanksgiving

or Christmas. I always kind of wanted people

to go, oh, look at me. Look at what I'm doing.

Look at this hilarious thing or laugh at me or

laugh with me, hopefully. So I don't I don't

know. When it started, I went and I auditioned

for my first play when I was nine, I believe.

I did Winnie the Pooh. So that was a fun franchise

to be a part of, we might say. And it just kind

of grew from there. And then it was a huge part

of my life growing up. I was always doing plays

and I was homeschooled growing up. So so many

people go, oh, I remember what year that was

because my teacher was... Miss so -and -so or

mr. So -and -so and that was third grade or fourth

grade and so working on banging Laney I've run

into a lot of people and and it occurred to me

said that's why I have such a hard time remembering

when things happened when I grew up because I

don't have Teachers as a reference point. I just

have plays. I'll go. What was I rehearsing at

the time? Oh, yeah Beauty and the Beast Okay,

what year did I perform that and then I have

to go, you know, look it up in an archive somewhere

So it just always was something that I enjoyed

doing And as I've gotten more into producing

and writing, I think it's really the storytelling

aspect that draws me in. Because like you were

saying, you know, always kind of pretending that

you are part of that world or play acting in

that world. And getting to be the person that's

creating that world and telling that story is

so awesome. It's so fulfilling to go, this is

the story I want to tell, and I think it's important

and I'm going to find an audience for it. Now,

let's go. It's the best. Definitely my most favorite

thing about working in the industry right now

Yeah, that's That that's got to be really awesome

getting to kind of live out your dream doing

doing this Yeah totally even and I tell people

all the time, you know, even if it has Not a

huge reach but it reaches a couple of people

and they really love it and it really speaks

to them That makes me happy Yeah a few years

ago. I was I was going to college and I I had

to take an acting class for a requirement, which

was the most difficult thing for me, I found,

because I'm not one of those people that can

stand up in front of people, so I'm very envious

of that capability. I can sit behind a microphone

all day, but standing in front of a group of

people terrifies me. So we had to do a monologue,

and I'm usually very terrible at remembering

words. Especially when in front of people and

and so I pretended to be like a radio announcer

Staring at a blank page so I didn't have to look

at people and I was able to recite it which was

funny and then And so I did like a really bad

case a case of impression and Then we had to

do like an odd couple type scenario Later on

in the semester and then and then for the final

semester monologue. I chose like a phrase from

the Joker so like that was the ultimate lake

I'm going all out so That was fun, but I haven't

done anything like that since but yeah, that's

It's it's very surprising what you're you're

capable of when you you put your mind to it Absolutely

yeah and I think finding an in always helps you

know doing something that you really are passionate

about you know something from the Joker pretending

that you're a radio announcer that always helps

make it easier. Black Widow I self -financed

and I spent a good amount of money on it but

I'm so happy with how it turned out I don't regret

it at all so because I was passionate about it

it doesn't matter so as long as you're finding

that balance It's all worth it. Yeah, I actually

watched that a few days ago and I was really

impressed by the The cinematography of it the

scripting of it just how it looked It was it

was a lot of fun to watch and How hard was it

to learn? Was that actually Russian that we were

speaking? That was actually Russian. Our production

designer was from Ukraine or is from Ukraine.

And so she spoke Russian and met up with Peter,

who played the man opposite me and I, and walked

us through our very halting at first Russian.

And then I just practiced and practiced and I

got people to record it so I could listen to

it and hear how it was supposed to sound. And

luckily it was a very short scene because once

you translate English into Russian, I feel like

words add 17 more syllables than they have in

English. They just become very, very long. And

so, yeah, that was really Russian. We learned

that. We practiced it a bunch and we got through

it. Yeah, the cinematography. I mean putting

that whole team together that also was about

finding somebody who was really passionate about

superhero movies Although he's a more DC guy.

He's always like now we gotta go make our Batman

film. Let's go. I want to make Many other characters

in the DC universe he wants to go off and make

but he understood that passion for for comic

books and for superhero characters and so Putting

him bringing him on board He was able to help

pull in a lot of other crew people and so Shawn

was fantastic director Yeah, like I said if people

haven't checked that out they they need to check

that out and they can get that on YouTube yeah,

yeah, just search black widow origins Or you

can get it on Twitter at BW origins That's correct.

Yes So yeah, that that was that was a lot of

fun to watch So What kind of run us through a

little bit of what your your film is going to

What what kind of inspired the the thought of

this film Sure Well, first I'll say so I've done

Black Widow and I made a Mad Max Taylor Swift

mashup parody music video. I've done some x -files

parodies I've done a lot kind of in playing in

other people's sandboxes and worlds that have

already been created and so Then I said, okay

now it's time I've got to go off and and create

my own story and tell my own thing and build

this world even if it's a fairly normal high

school world, so I've kind of played around with

a lot of other nerdy cultures, which I totally

enjoy and For this one what I think what inspired

the idea it really just kind of popped into my

head But the little girl that I was babysitting

for at the time Very just old soul and asks really

deep wise questions that are a little bit like,

maybe we should just eat ice cream and not talk

about the fact that, you know, love is hard to

find and people that you like at school might

not like you back. I was like, you're seven,

let's not worry about this. But I think. That

sort of conversations that I was having with

her almost every day just got me thinking about

my past and sort of my experiences with relationships

and with romance and with kind of because I was

homeschooled when I got to college, like kind

of trying to catch up with this culture and with

things that people just seem to know, not that

I lived under a rock or anything necessarily,

but just there's a shorthand or there's just

a different. Not different personality, but just

sort of a different understanding that people

have if you've gone through public school You

just are a little bit more aware of of the world

as it were or like social norms I don't know.

I can't really explain it and so I had a couple

of Funny run -ins in college one of which someone

waiting for an audition One semester a boy or

a young man came in and he said I did it I got

number 69 and I just said Oh, is that your favorite

number? Completely unaware had no idea what I

was saying and everyone kind of gave me a really

weird look and I was like, whatever I don't know

what's going on Of course, I go back to my dorm

room, I Google this, and of course, you know,

Urban Dictionary pops up and I decide promptly,

I probably never want to show my face to any

of those people again. And that moment was really

the starting point for the script was, you know,

what if there's this person who, very much like

me, isn't You know isn't crazy isn't totally

out of it and out of touch with reality or with

people or with her peers but just isn't quite

as much in the know as a lot of people around

her and if she wakes up one day and Realizes,

you know wakes up to the world or literally wakes

up and goes. Oh, I'm being left behind Everyone

has started to grow up and I haven't and I need

to fix this What would that person? How would

they handle it? Chatting with my director, we

kind of said, okay, let's imagine there's a female

Spock in an American high school who's trying

to get a date. So that's kind of where we're

headed with this concept. It's just somebody

who's trying to figure out all of these cues

and all these things. People are saying but very

in a very logical fashion like writing down notes

doing experiments Okay, we're gonna find the

formula for humanity. And of course there isn't

one it's it's all way more complicated than that

so very long -winded answer that's the the inspiration

behind this story is just my crazy life No, it's

it sounds very interesting. It kind of reminds

me a little bit of like if you mixed a little

bit of Sheldon Cooper from Big Bang Theory and

Spock, but switched the gender on it and gave

it a little bit of a different background and

you've got this unique individual. Yeah, that's

a really good analogy. So how can people get

involved and what are some of the awesome opportunities

involved with this. Well, if there's anyone living

in LA, reach out to me. We should be filming

in LA. We're hoping to help film in LA in the

first three weeks of December. That's where I'm

based. That's where our director's based and

our crew is based. So we're always happy to have

people. Come down and help us out on set if you

know how to run sound or anything like that The

main way that everybody can get involved globally

right now is just with sharing the campaign The

more people that see the page and visit the page

The donations will just go up. So even if you're

not financially able to participate in that way

by providing funds so that we can buy a light

so people can see my face and other people's

faces or buy a mic so people can hear us. Just

sharing it on Facebook or on Twitter, of course,

Instagram, or just emailing people or texting

people you think might be interested in the project,

the link to the campaign itself, that's a huge

help. And that's kind of our biggest thing at

the moment. And what I've been telling everybody

on our team is that's going to be what's going

to get us to reach our goal is personally reaching

out to people and saying, hey, this project looks

like something that you would be interested in.

Check it out. And then we'll get our funding

and we'll go make you guys a movie. Great. So

and this is. Obviously not going to be anytime

soon because you're gonna be busy with this film,

but what's something you'd like to tackle after

you've made this film? I was just texting a friend

of mine who is a director who's also helping

with our crowdfunding campaign and I said, remind

me, I've got to pitch you my western film idea

that you can direct and then I said, it'll star

me and hopefully we'll get Nathan Fillion. So

that's kind of the next project that's bubbling

in my mind. It's like a two -person Western.

Me and hopefully Nathan Fillion will listen to

this podcast and go, that sounds brilliant. I

definitely want to be involved. So that's one

that I would tackle next as a writer, producer,

creator. And then I love action films. I love

superhero films. You know, I jokingly would always

say I'm making Black Widow as the most expensive

audition tape for Avengers Infinity War that

anyone can possibly make and put money into.

So I would love to get involved in something

like that or get into the Marvel world on Netflix.

And then they've got Gifted coming out and then

Humans and so many other amazing projects. That's

what I would love to do. I don't have as much

say in my participation in that as I do this

Western, this like dark two -person Western film

idea. Yeah, I can totally relate to some of that

of having control or not having control. I used

to... imagine that eventually because I can do

a lot of animated character voices based off

of series I watched as a kid mostly because I

would play and pretend that I was doing these

all these different voices when I would play

as a kid so oh that's awesome so like you know

Beast Wars I would do Megatron or you know yeah

Ah, yes. Optimus Primal. You know, just stuff

like that. Oh, that's awesome. So my friends

like getting me to do those, but I ended up taking

a filmmaking class through college and screenwriting

and I created my own superhero universe. Oh,

yes. Dope. which I thought was cool. And I was,

and my teachers like, you have to make it 60

pages, not 59, not 61, 60 pages. It's like a

TV pilot. Like, and he grilled us through the

whole process, you know, just of, you know, all

these beats you had to hit. And I took this,

this pop culture superhero class through the

Smithsonian. They have it on like edx .org or

something. They actually had three rounds three

rounds of it and then they had a Which were essentially

the same class. I just took it multiple times

so I could flesh out different parts of my universe

and then Then they had like a version two that

came out later on that I took which You took

your your main character and you actually had

to work with characters other people created

So like your own like custom. It's really interesting

and it's it's it's run by Michael Uslan the guy

that owns the rights to all the The Batman films

and Stan Lee was involved It's it's really cool.

You'll have to check it out. I'll send you the

link Yeah, you've got to definitely send me the

link for this So so I use that to essentially

create my my characters in different aspects

of the timeline so it's I'll have to just show

you that. Yes, please. So in addition to filmmaking,

what are some other things you like geeking out

to? Okay, book wise, the Red Rising trilogy by

Pierce Brown is my number one favorite right

now. And if people out there are book fans and

you have not read it yet, I highly recommend

checking it out. All three books are out. It's

Red Rising. Golden Sun and Morningstar, that's

the correct order. And they're phenomenal, great,

great sci -fi books, great world building. So

that's probably what I'm still geeking out to

in the book world. Let's see. What else? I mean,

Star Wars, obviously, the next Thor movie comes

out in November, which will hopefully be a blast.

It certainly looks like it. Yeah, we've got Black

Panther. I just watched the trailer for The Punisher

TV show that's going to come out on Netflix.

this morning, and that looks pretty good. I'm

pretty excited about that. I just finished the

Defenders, which was a journey. Some episodes

were better than others, but that's OK. And let's

see, what else am I geeking out to? I mean, I

also always love going back. I mean, it was a

year or two ago that I got into the X -Files

because that's all up on Netflix at the moment.

I didn't watch it when I was growing up, but

I was Hugely into that. I think I watched like

all of season five in a day Because I didn't

have anything to do. So why not eat some peanut

butter toast and spend the whole day watching

X -Files? That's a great place that I made it

was awesome And then let's see stranger things

comes back in October. That's gonna be great

Game of Thrones. We've got one more season on

I'm pretty much geeking out to just about everything,

I would say. Wonder Woman was phenomenal over

the summer. Gonna be Wonder Woman for Halloween.

Already have the costume, I'm ready to go. Yeah,

I've been watching all the superhero films. Looking

forward to the ones that are yet to come out

for the year. Star Wars, obviously. Been watching,

waiting for... fall tv to come back so now that

it's that's starting to come back i'm i'm gonna

be geeking out to the all that so nice yeah it's

i watch a lot of tv that's good i need to watch

more tv than i do um and then uh watch the uh

seth mcfarlane uh star trek knockoff uh the how

is that I haven't checked that out yet. How is

it? It feels like watching Star Trek The Next

Generation with a little bit of Seth MacFarlane's

comedic style, but it's not... Okay. It's not

too hilarious. No, it's not Family Guy level.

It's like they throw in some sarcasm and some

kind of goofy stuff in there, but it's still

very serious. Is it a little more galaxy questy?

Very galaxy questy. Oh, Galaxy Quest is my favorite

movie. I have to go watch the show right now.

I'm so excited. And they tackle some pretty deep

stuff in the episode. There's some stuff that's

a little bit of dirty humor in parts of it, but

it's not overtly so where it's distracting. So

it's done very well. And then Star Trek Discovery

just came out. I've been hearing some good things

and then some people are like, it's okay. So

I don't know. I really want to check it out though.

I mean, it's love all the Star Trek that I watched.

I am being one that that knows the lore and a

lot of the stuff and I do forget things and but

it's I would say give it a shot. At least at

least try the CBS all -access and try the first

two episodes and it I would almost argue that

the first two episodes are like a Primer for

this universe like granted is supposed to take

place ten years before the original series Which

if you're looking at it graphically and the way

that some of the Klingons and some of the characters

look And the technology it looks like it fits

with the rebooted JJ Abrams universe Yeah, somebody

was saying the Klingons look wrong. They and

they're saying that they're gonna explain it

but There's okay, they had Star Trek Enterprise

which and stop me if I'm going way over your

head on some of this but no enterprise the Klingons

looked like they did in the next generation Voyager,

Deep Space Nine. Right, because I was going to

say when, because I know Star Trek Enterprise

also took place before the original series. Yeah,

and it was a hundred years before. It was a hundred

years before. So this is only ten years before.

Yeah. So after timeline wise, it's after Enterprise

before the original series. Yeah. And so like

there's a lot of question of how. Everything

is as advanced and everything looks the way it

does and yet it resets to this like Clean -cut

looking stuff ten years later all of a sudden

Huh, so I I almost I'm gonna be like the timeline

thing cuz didn't they they mean they reset sort

of one timeline in the 2009 Reboot yeah, maybe

that's gonna be the justification. They call

it the Kelvin timeline when JJ Abrams did that

right but this was supposed to take place in

the prime universe which it's very confusing

how that actually works but yeah it's like I

said I I would still say that if if you're a

fan of sci -fi or a fan of Star Trek to check

it out because it is it is good if you look beyond

the fact that it doesn't fit in continuity of

the prime universe right um but There are some

people who say, you know, the rebooted Star Trek

films are a little bit of a different tone than

the original series and sort of next generation

and even Voyager. And I totally see their point.

I can agree with it. But they're also really

fun sci -fi films on their own, even if some

of them are a little more just crazy sci -fi

action adventure. I will say. I guess. Sorry.

Oh, no, go on. I will say Into Darkness, though,

it's. I think that that one's the sloppiest one

out of the three movies, but just writing alone

was just bad. Too much rehash of old stuff. But

I thought Star Trek Beyond was just pure fun.

Pure entertainment. I had a great time. And if

you're looking at it from that perspective, I

think that Discovery will be fine. The first

two episodes I would say is a good primer. I

would say the third episode is like Essentially

like how the original series back in the day

did the the episode the cage with Captain Pike

and Then they switched to Captain Kirk like for

the next pilot So I would almost argue that the

third episode is like the second pilot of the

show Okay, because it's gonna kind of change

tone from the first two episodes All right, so

I would say give it a shot. I could be into that.

So, yeah, I've been following this show like

crazy since it's come out, so. So what are some

of your favorite characters in television or

cinema? Oh, man. I mean, favorite overall or

like favorite that I would want to play or all

the way above? Either one. Or both. I compare

myself a lot to River Tam and Firefly is one

of my favorites. And I'm not that crazy and weird,

but I definitely can relate on some level to

reading people emotionally and getting a little

overwhelmed by that at some points. I mean, I

loved Captain Janeway growing up. She was a huge

hero of mine. There's many, many pictures of

me pretending to be her drinking coffee. or just

holding a coffee mug all around the house. Let's

see, who are some of my other favorite characters?

I mean, I do think that Natasha Romanoff has

a really interesting backstory and that could

obviously carry a full feature film because there's

a lot to explore there. Scully is awesome. There's

so many good characters, man. I just put up a

meme of Starbuck in the Battlestar Galactica

reboot today, and that's also one of my favorite

performances, I think, in the sci -fi universe.

She just did such a great job. Who else? It's

always a fun question to ask because everybody's

like, man. There's so many. I know. There's so

many good characters. I mean, I haven't even

gone into Lord of the Rings yet. I mean, Mary

and Pippin are just really fun characters. Aragorn

is a very interesting character to explore and

see. He's got a lot of mysterious layers going

on. Eowyn is awesome. Then there's Harry Potter

we haven't even gone into. Yeah, there's just

so many fun different characters. There's a great

character in the Red Rising series called Mustang,

generally. Her real name is Virginia, but she

usually goes by Mustang and she's a really great

character as well. Yeah, I think Furiosa is probably

one of my top favorite characters from film in

the past few years because it's such an original

character. And I think the performance is just

really, really strong. And I would love to play

a role like that. One day. Cool. Yeah, for me,

it's kind of difficult. I like a lot of characters.

I know. I can't pick. I can't pick. It's like

trying to pick your favorite movie or your top

five. Which my top five films always change.

Depending on who, you know, at what time of year

somebody asks me. Yeah, or what my mood is. Although

I did decide one day, I said, you know what,

Galaxy Quest probably is my favorite movie because

I'm always in the mood to watch it. There's never

a time that you could come to me and say, hey,

do you want to watch Galaxy Quest? And I go,

nah, I don't really feel like it. I'm always

ready. I have a Star Trek film that's like that

for me, but I wore out the VHS tape when I was

a kid. Oh no! Which one? Which Star Trek film?

Funny enough, it's Star Trek 6. The undiscovered

country. It's the last one with the original

crew. Yeah. So yeah, that's probably my favorite

Trek film overall. That's one of the few that

doesn't get knocked off. And then I like the

Batman mask of the phantasm. First film I ever

saw in theater. Oh wow. Yeah, that's a good choice

too. Mm -hmm Yeah, it's always hard for me because

I feel like there are some that are givens It's

like obviously Star Wars is on the list obviously

and Indiana Jones is on the list So do I have

to put them in my top five if they're just like

a given that that's gonna be a favorite That's

that's why we do these like We sometimes we do

these top 100 countdowns and then we get a bunch

of people that compile lists and then we put

them all together Then record like the results

in a podcast which oh that sounds fun Yeah, you're

welcome to join in if you know And we we compile

them we we did like animated series one -year

animated films TV series It's always interesting

to see what comes up. Yeah Cuz everybody has

different tastes. Mm -hmm. And that's the fun

part is it averages everybody's tastes, right?

That sounds like a blast so But yeah, that's

that's part of what we do on that that front

You've already said that for franchise properties.

You you definitely want Marvel Yes, I mean and

Star Wars and Star Wars. It's just a given that

would be the best thing ever or Star Trek I was

lucky enough to go in PA on a Star Trek sort

of unofficial web series. Which one? It was Star

Trek Renegades. Oh, wow. And yeah, so I met Tim

Russ, which I was like part of while I go die

in the corner because that's awesome. And yeah,

I was I mean, I was literally sweeping the floor

and taking out the trash, but I was on a Star

Trek set, so I was happy as a clam and it was

amazing. Yeah, I think I'd be in the same boat.

Yeah. They set the lights and went to red alert

at one point and I was like, I have to leave.

This is too much. This is my dream from childhood

come true right now. Even if I'm not in front

of the camera, it's okay. This is the coolest

thing to happen to me all year. I'd just be happy

being one of the red shirts. Yeah, totally. Captain

boom they're gone. Exactly then you're gone So

is there anything else you'd like to kind of

promote before we Well if anyone out there is

also a Shakespeare nerd I have a Shakespeare

podcast with my best friend that's all about

Shakespeare if anyone is on that level that's

called shaky understanding because I know nothing

about Shakespeare and she knows a lot so we chat

about that and read a different play every podcast

and talk about it we do not read the play live

because that would take way too long that would

take hours but then we'll talk about it so yeah

people can check that out but I think I think

that's it for me Awesome, awesome. Yeah. Check

out banginglany .com. Spread the word. Will do.

And so how can the listeners interact with you?

I am on Twitter and Instagram at AHPowell, P

for Paul, O, W, E, L, L, 9, 1. Both those handles

are the same. And then on Facebook, it's just

Allison Powell. Just search me. Awesome. So yeah.

Thank you for joining us on this adventure into

your personal geekdom. Well, thanks, Steven.

Thanks for having me. Alrighty. So thank you

for joining me on Altered Geek, and until next

time, get geeky with the Altered Geeks.